Music venue Ziggy's to open Wilmington club

Published: Friday, May 24, 2013 at 12:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, May 24, 2013 at 9:12 a.m.

Jay Stephens, owner of the long-standing music venue Ziggy's in Winston-Salem, said he's signed a lease on the space at 208 Market St. in downtown Wilmington and plans to open a Ziggy's there, perhaps as early as mid-June.

"But, if we get open by the end of June, early July, I feel like we'd be doing very well," said Stephens, who's in the process of lining up the necessary permits.

Stephens said that he plans to "totally re-do" the space, which is currently known as The Brikhouse and has been putting on concerts sporadically for the past year or so. A concert by the rapper Juicy J scheduled for May 9 at The Brikhouse was moved to The Soapbox, another downtown venue.

Stephens said he wants to bring a variety of country, Americana and rock acts to what would be the new Ziggy's. A sign with the Ziggy's logo and its slogan – "roots, rock, reggae" – now hangs in the front window of the Market Street club.

"Beau Gunn with The Penguin is a big part of all this," Stephens said, adding that the folk, Americana and jam rock played by the radio station at 98.3 FM lines up well with the types of shows he sees booking here. The Penguin regularly brings bands to town for shows at venues of various sizes, and Stephens said he's talked with Gunn, as well as with the Progressive Music Group, about possible shows that could be booked at a Wilmington Ziggy's.

According to a story by the Winston-Salem Journal, a concert for July 26 by veteran blues rocker Delbert McClinton has already been lined up. Stephens also mentioned such artists as country songwriter Corey Smith and pedal steel wizard Robert Randolph as concerts he could see working in the revamped Market Street space.

Stephens told the Journal that "when we get bands touring through North Carolina, we can sometimes get a better deal" if he is able to book them at more than one location, and that the extra location might enable him to bring bands to North Carolina that wouldn't have come otherwise.

A Ziggy's in Wilmington would likely be competing for acts with such mid-size Wilmington venues as The Soapbox, the Brooklyn Arts Center and Greenfield Lake Amphitheater.

Ziggy's opened in Winston-Salem in 1978 and Stephens bought the club in 1990. He has history booking shows in Wilmington — outdoors on the grounds of Wilmington International Airport in the 1990s, and more recently on the Water Street parking deck downtown — and calls Charlie Maultsby, the proprietor of late, lamented Wilmington music venue The Mad Monk, his mentor. Stephens also ran a club, Ziggy's by the Sea, in Atlantic Beach, until 2005.

Ziggy's in Winston-Salem holds about 1,000 patrons, and the space at 208 Market St. is currently licensed for 740, Stephens said.

The building has a lot of history. It was a movie theater, The Manor, in the 1970s and has since been a number of music and dance clubs, including Jacob's Run, Rox and Hammerjax.

Stephens said the plan is for the new Ziggy's to be open seven days a week, with a craft beer and cocktail bar on the venue's second level open even when bands aren't booked.

"There will be naysayers," Stephens said, "but a lot of people think we can do well there."